


Pan-Amped

by GreenGables89



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, The Last of Us
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25713460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenGables89/pseuds/GreenGables89
Summary: Ellie meets the girl on fire
Relationships: Ellie/Katniss
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Pan-Amped

**Author's Note:**

> This one goes out to AutumnSouls

The sun was starting to set in the Jackson sky, and Ellie had just made it out of the valley and over the first ridge. Yesterday, a few of her friends from town headed up to the ski lodge as part of the celebration of Dina's 22nd birthday. Ellie evidently partied a little too hard the night before. When Jesse knocked on her door in the morning, Ellie said she would catch up with them later. It was about a day's walk to the lodge ordinarily, but Ellie was moving especially slowly today. By the time she made it over the incline it was evident she was going to have to make camp for the night and walk the rest of the way in the morning. She had another hour or two of daylight left, so she needed to find somewhere reasonably flat, reasonably quick. At the moment she was surrounded by thick brush and trees. She was still a little bit hungover, and not entirely sure which direction to walk at the moment. She looked around for a good tree to climb. She eventually found a tall, sturdy lodgepole pine and walked up to the base. She set down her backpack and removed her belt from her pants, wrapping one end of it around her right hand. She stepped up onto the first branch, wrapped her belt around the tree and, holding onto it with both hands, stepped up onto the next. She carried on like this until she was about 15 feet above the ground. Then, with both hands clasped firmly around her belt, she took one foot off the branch she was standing on, and leaned away from the tree to get a better view of the landscape.

Just then she heard a noise on the ground below. She put both feet back on the tree and crouched on the branch. She looked below, but couldn't see any movement. There was a bit less daylight now, and her headache was making her vision slightly worse than usual, but she eventually decided it must have been her imagination. She straightened her legs and started to reposition her feet again when she suddenly heard the very clear snap of a twig on the ground right below her. Startled, she lost her footing and fell. She tried to hold onto her belt, but the fall was so abrupt that the leather just slipped through her hand, slicing it on the way. She landed hard on her left foot and collapsed forwards onto her stomach, and as she did, there was a scream. She had fallen almost directly on top of a person. It was a woman. The woman beneath her put her hands on Ellie's shoulders and pushed her off of her, yelling,

"What the hell?!" 

Ellie had been pushed to the side of the woman, but remained on her stomach for a few seconds to let the air return to her lungs. After a second or two Ellie turned her head to see who she had landed on. The woman was lying on her back, holding her face with one hand and her stomach with the other. She had brown hair, and wore a dark buckskin jacket. She looked about the same age as Ellie, and appeared to be carrying similar gear. They both stayed unmoving for a minute or so, then Ellie dug her hands into the ground and pushed her upper body up. She looked down at the woman and said,

"Fuck. Are you okay?"

The woman took her hand off her face and looked at Ellie. Ellie was immediately struck by her piercing gray eyes. She looked up at the sky, blinking a few times, then back at Ellie.

"Seems so. What the hell were you doing?"

She sat up slowly and put her hands behind her on the ground. Ellie looked up at her now, unable to respond at first. Ellie thought she had never seen such an attractive woman in her entire life. She shook her head and pushed herself up to sit, resting her hands on her thighs.

"I was uh... looking for something.."

The woman stared at her for a second, then looked down at her hand, which still had her belt partially wrapped around it.

"Okay," the woman said, "well, are you alright?"

"Me? Oh yeah. I do that all the time."

Ellie immediately felt like an idiot. Every time she tried talking to women she ended up trying to be funny. Why did she do that? She bit her bottom lip to stop herself from continuing to talk. The woman removed her backpack and stretched her arms back behind herself, then rubbed her neck. Ellie realized she was staring again, so she removed her hands from her thighs and started unwrapping the belt from her right hand. The woman looked at Ellie's leg and said,

"You're bleeding"

Ellie looked down and saw a distinctive red line across her jeans.

"Oh," she said, lifting up her left hand, "that was just the belt.. on the way down, I..."

The woman nodded.

"I'm Katniss"

"Really?"

The woman looked at her with a furrowed brow.

"I mean, I'm Ellie."

The woman nodded again and then started getting something out of her backpack. Ellie looked up and mouthed 'oh my god' to herself. The woman pulled out a watch and looked at it closely.

"What are you doing out here?" Ellie asked.

"I'm on my way to Jackson" Katniss said, putting the watch back in her backpack and zipping it up, "I kind of walked away from a bad situation back home and I heard there was a town out here."

If Ellie had been standing, she felt sure she would have fallen over. This woman was going to be living in town, and the first impression she had of Ellie was her falling out of a tree. This was just her luck.

"Yeah, me too, kind of. I live there. It's nice. It's in the valley, so there aren't a lot of outside visitors but... it's nice."

Katniss looked up at her and half-smiled, then looked back in her backpack. Why did she smile at her? Was she happy that Ellie lived there? Was it hilarious that she was going to have to live near such an idiot? Ellie wasn't sure. 

"Did I break anything?" Ellie asked, looking into her backpack.

"No. There's nothing in here you could break."

Her voice was deep, and a little bit raspy. And it was making Ellie feel even more light headed than she already had been. Ellie cleared her throat,

"Well, I don't think you're going to make it there tonight. It's kind of a tricky hike, especially at night"

"Yeah", Katniss said, pushing her bangs out of her face, "I already made camp. I was just getting some wood when you came along."

Ellie nodded. Of course she already made camp. This woman seemed like she could survive in the Sahara Desert with nothing but a knife and some rope. 

"What are you doing out here?" Katniss asked.

"Oh. There's a lodge a few miles that way," Ellie said, pointing, "I'm meeting some friends. But I'll be back in town in a few days. I mean, we all will. So, you'll be able to meet them, then, too."

Katniss laughed. Dammit. Ellie was being funny again? 

"Okay. Well, my camp is right over there. If you want you can stay with me tonight."

"That would be great!" Ellie blurted out.

She really wished she had paused for at least a few seconds before answering. It did sound great though. After the day she had she wasn't looking forward making her own camp, and this woman was so hypnotizing that Ellie wasn't ready to watch her walk away yet. Katniss smiled again and stood up. Ellie got to her feet and immediately fell off balance. She grabbed onto the tree and raised her right foot up. Katniss stopped what she was doing and looked at her again, waiting for her to say something. 

"It's fine," Ellie said, waving her hand, "I think I just landed on my foot, so... It's fine."

"Are you sure?"

Ellie stepped on her foot again, lightly. It was sore, but it didn't feel like anything was broken. She nodded and bent down to pick up her backpack. Katniss got her bag back on and picked up the small pile of sticks she had been carrying. They walked back to Katniss's camp and picked up a few more branches on the way. Ellie had to focus as hard as she could on not obviously limping, as her foot really did hurt. As they walked, Katniss spoke a little bit about where she came from, and Ellie quickly found herself mesmerized again. As she listened to her talk, everything else around her started to dissapear. Then, all of a sudden, she stepped on a stone with her bad foot and completely lost her footing. Her knee automatically bent in response to the pain, and she almost fell. In a split second, Katniss dropped her sticks and caught her. Ellie had been carrying some sticks in between her bent elbows, her hands up by her chest. Katniss's arms were now around hers, holding her up. They stood still for a second. Then Ellie raised her head up to look at Katniss, before quickly looking away again and getting back to her feet. Again they stood still for a second, then Katniss bent over to pick her sticks back up. Ellie squeezed her eyes shut and said,

"Thanks" 

"No problem" 

Katniss got all her sticks back in her arms and smiled at her again. Ellie couldn't be sure if she was amused by her or kicking herself for having offered her a place to sleep. But every time Katniss smiled at her she gasped a little internally. They walked the rest of the way to the camp without any further incidents. Katniss's camp was a bedroll on the ground, a stone circle for a fire, and some rope thrown over a nearby tree branch, Ellie guessed, to raise her bag up. They walked over to the stone circle and Ellie set down the sticks and branches she picked up. Katniss got down onto her knees in front of it and started building a fire. Ellie dropped her bag and sat down on a fallen log. She opened her bag, pulled out the blanket that was on top and set it on the ground. Then she took out her jacket and put it on. For most of the day she had been quite warm, but it was starting to get cold up here now. Katniss got the fire going and sat down next to her on the log. She started rubbing her hands together and held them out above the fire. Ellie looked at her hands. They were slender, and fairly pale. They were slightly chapped at the knuckles, and Ellie thought she must not be used to cold weather. That's when she remembered her own hand.

Ellie looked at her hand. There was a shallow cut running nearly the entire length of her palm from her thumb to her wrist, and it was now covered in dirt as well. She reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of rubbing alcohol. Katniss blew into her hands, looked over and watched her. Ellie fumbled with the bottle, putting it between her knees and opening it with one hand, then pouring some over her hand. She set the bottle down and was about to wipe it off with the sleeve of her jacket when Katniss said,

"Hold on"

She stood up and walked over to her own backpack. She came back with several pieces of fabric. She handed Ellie one, and Ellie smiled, taking it and wiping her hand off.

"Thank you again" Ellie said, setting the fabric on the log to dry.

Katniss turned to her side and put one leg over the log so she was facing Ellie.

"Let me see it" 

Without thinking, Ellie turned to face her, put her own leg over the log and held out her hand without saying anything. Katniss took Ellie's hand in hers and held it up to her face for a second before putting it down on her leg. Her hands felt warm after pouring freezing alcohol on her own, and for just a second Ellie had felt her breath on it. She decided that, whatever might come in the future, it was worth it for this moment. Katniss picked up a longer piece of fabric, probably the side of a tee shirt, and ripped it lengthwise. Then she picked up Ellie's hand again and started wrapping it. Ellie looked at her face as she did. She was so attractive that Ellie couldn't believe she was real. She wrapped the fabric around her hand 5 or 6 times before tying it in a knot on the back of Ellie's hand. Then she looked up at Ellie, who was still staring, and they got stuck staring at each other for a few seconds. Katniss eventually looked away, Ellie couldn't. Without moving, Ellie said, quietly,

"Thanks"

Katniss smiled and turned back to face the fire and put her hands over it again.

"Are you cold?" Ellie asked, and then immediately felt dumb.

"Yeah. It's a bit warmer where I came from"

"I hate to tell you this, but it's going to get a lot colder tonight"

"I figured it might," Katniss said, laughing. Then she turned her head and looked at Ellie, "I like you"

Ellie smiled and looked down at her hands. She felt a little more at ease now. Whether she actually liked Ellie or just found her funny, at least she wasn't regretting having met her. That was something. For the rest of the night they sat by the fire, telling stories and laughing together. Every once in a while, one of them would touch the other's shoulder, or leg, or arm. This did not go unappreciated by Ellie who, by this point, was just following Katniss's lead in everything from conversation topics to body language. Eventually they ended up getting off the log, sitting on the ground, and leaning against it, to be closer to the fire. Ellie picked up her blanket and they wrapped it around themselves, sitting close together. Hours went by, and the more tired they got, the more they ended up laughing and telling sillier and sillier stories. They never did get up to lie down. They ended up eventually falling asleep reclined against the log.

When the sun came up, Ellie opened her eyes and looked around. Katniss's head was on her shoulder, and she had one arm over Ellie's stomach. They were still half-sitting up against the log, with the blanket around them. Ellie bent her back a little bit to stretch it out, and Katniss opened her eyes. She didn't move right away, so Ellie didn't either. Eventually Katniss lifted her head and they looked at each other. Her face was so close to hers that Ellie couldn't speak. Katniss smiled and looked away, sitting up and stretching. 

"Well that was a dumb place to sleep" 

"There were better options" Ellie said, sitting up.

Katniss got up and started getting her stuff together. She pulled the rope down from the tree, rolled up her unused bed roll, and put her stuff into her backpack. Ellie quickly rolled up the blanket and put it into her own bag. After the fire was covered and everything was put away they both looked around for a few seconds, and then stood, looking at each other. 

"So," Ellie said, "The easiest way down is right through there. You should make it to town by this afternoon."

"Okay. Well, I'm glad I met you. This was fun."

Ellie bit her cheek to try and stop herself from smiling.

"Yeah. Well, I can fall on you again whenever you want"

'Oh my god!' Ellie thought, shaking her head. Katniss smiled and nodded, then picked up her backpack and slung it over one shoulder. She looked at Ellie for another second and then walked over in front of her and held out her hand. Ellie took it with her good hand and shook it. Then, Katniss pulled Ellie by the hand and kissed her on the lips. It happened so fast that Ellie didn't have time to react. She just stood there staring.

"Just... so we understand each other.." Katniss said, letting go of Ellie's hand.

Katniss started walking away, and Ellie stood still with her hand out for a few seconds. She snapped out of it and turned around. 

"Okay! Well, I'll see you around then?"

Katniss turned around, but kept walking, backwards. 

"Looks that way"

Then she turned back around, and walked towards Jackson. Ellie watched her walk away and exhaled a deep breath. Just before Katniss walked out of sight, she turned her head back one more time. Ellie had never felt more thankful for having a hangover in her life.


End file.
